Here’s my guess: Everett Withers needed to win at least 10 games in 2011 to have his status move from interim head coach to North Carolina’s full-time head coach. This is somewhat due to the fact that no one likes the interim head coach, the guy called in when all else fails with the task of picking up the pieces and going to work. You’re not the old guy – well-liked, in the Tar Heels’ case – and you’re not the new guy, who’s always the most popular guy in town. The interim head coach inhabits a sort of purgatory, a level between his former job as a lieutenant and his current job as a captain, and the dichotomy between what he used to do and what he must now do is the first of several impediments along the road to removing the interim tag from his title.
For Withers, a second major roadblock came in the person of Bubba Cunningham, the university’s newly-named athletic director. If we know one thing about new athletic directors, it’s that change is afoot: Butch Davis’ departure granted Cunningham the opportunity to make a splash, and taking the interim tag off of Withers’ title was not the sort of splash he had in mind.
Hence the above claim, that Withers would have needed to win 10 games – something U.N.C. hasn’t done since Mack Brown – to maintain his role within the program. Double-digit wins would have trumped Davis, who won eight games in each of his last three years, and that it came under such adverse circumstances would have been the largest feather in Withers’ cap.
But the Tar Heels didn’t, dropping to 7-6 after a dreadful bowl loss to Missouri, and that made Cunningham’s already-easy decision even simpler: U.N.C. needs a break from the past, said Cunningham, so here comes the fresh blood.
The latter idea is important. Withers, though not a figure in the N.C.A.A.’s thorough investigation into the program, may have been tainted by the missteps that occurred under Davis’ watch. So perhaps 10 wins wouldn’t have been enough, even if winning 10 games while surrounded by this cloud would have been one of the greatest coaching feats in program history.
What else is important is consider? Think about this: U.N.C. would not have fired Davis – if the other issues didn’t exist – for going 7-6 in 2011. The university would have been disappointed, as would have been the fan base, but seven wins and a bowl berth remains a fairly solid feat in this age of U.N.C. football.
So it’s not like Withers drove the ship aground, or took a national title contender and led them to a fourth-place finish in the A.C.C. Coastal division. He took an already-flawed team, one decimated by injuries and attrition, and led it back to bowl play. It was a good feat, just not good enough for Cunningham and the university.
At least Withers landed on his feet. On Dec. 21, five days before Tar Heels’ 41-24 Independence Bowl loss to Missouri, Withers told reporters he would be joining Urban Meyer’s staff at Ohio State as co-defensive coordinator – a title he’ll share with another former interim coach, Luke Fickell – and assistant head coach.
But his departure after a seven-win finish raises a meaningful question. What sort of standard will his successor, former Southern Mississippi coach Larry Fedora, be held to with the Tar Heels? Seven wins may be enough in 2012, but will 7-6 cut it in 2013, 2014 or 2015? And this raises another interesting question: What sort of program does U.N.C. want to be? Now I’ve opened Pandora’s box.
Season grade: B A strikingly familiar season for U.N.C. – minus the off-field melodrama, of course. Shove around the bad teams, beat a few good teams and lose to the cream of the crop. The only noticeable difference between 2010 and 2011, for instance, may be the one fewer victory. But the losses were uglier: Clemson made the Heels look silly, N.C. State pitched a shutout and Missouri… U.N.C. never showed up. All things considered, however, I don’t think Withers did a terrible job. Was he ready for this endeavor? Not quite, but no interim coach ever is. All things considered – U.N.C. played an easier schedule, but Ohio State had more talent – Withers seemed to handle this challenge better than Fickle handled his in Columbus.
High point A 5-1 start included wins over Rutgers, Virginia and Louisville, each of which looked stronger in hindsight. Outside of Clemson, no A.C.C. team had a stronger first half of 2011.
Low point The 59-38 loss to Clemson was humbling and the 13-0 loss to the rival Wolfpack devastating, but U.N.C.’s bowl performance was the low point of the season. Not that the Tar Heels had anything to play for, but the effort simply wasn’t there. Perhaps the fact that its head coach was already signed, sealed and delivered to Ohio State had something to do with the team’s poor performance.
Offensive M.V.P. Bryn Renner lived up the hype, finishing 10th nationally in quarterback efficiency and tossing a school-record 26 touchdowns. Nearly half of those scoring strikes, 12, went to wide receiver Dwight Jones, who tied Clemson’s Sammy Watkins for the conference lead. Perhaps the biggest difference-maker for this offense was running back Gio Bernard, who became the program’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 1997. Perhaps Clemson has the better quarterback and receiver – though I think Renner was more consistent that Tajh Boyd – but no team in the A.C.C. touted a better offensive triumvirate. So the trio share M.V.P. honors.
Defensive M.V.P. Quinton Coples did as expected: handle double-teams, stuff the line, make plays in the backfield. The breakout star on this defense was linebacker Zach Brown, a part-time starter in 2009 and 2010 who flourished with added snaps on the weak side. Brown, who joined Coples as a first-team all-A.C.C. pick, led U.N.C. with 105 tackles (13.5 for loss).
Stock watch Fedora fits the bill. His background on offense separates him greatly from each of the program’s last four coaches, if we include Withers, and largely differentiates him from his A.C.C. coaching brethren. Fedora’s energy and enthusiasm on the recruiting trail will also serve U.N.C. well over the coming years. Based on what returns on offense, the Tar Heels should be even stronger on that side of the ball in 2012. But the defense will take a hit; the Tar Heels lose Coples, Brown, Donte Paige-Moss and a good portion of the secondary, so it’s only natural to take a step back. In terms of 2012, anything less than a bowl trip would be disappointing. But anything more than seven wins would be a pleasant surprise.
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